




^^uWvN:^ 



AN ADDRESS 



TO 



THE INHABITANTS 



STATE OF DELAWARE 



1843. 






^^ ' ^ 



'of 



TO THE INHABITANTS 



OF THE 



STATE OF DELAWARE: 

Fellow Countrymen and Citizens, — 

I hope I shall not be charged with impertinence, if 
I endeavour to call your attention to one or two sub- 
jects, of great importance to ourselves and our pos- 
terity. The voice of admonition, when it comes from 
a friend, may sometirpes be heard with advantage, 
even though little may be offered which was not pre- 
viously known. It must be admitted that the time, 
now passing over us, is of a very singular character. 
Pecuniary distress seems to have spread its raven 
wing over every part of our land. The merchant at 
his desk, the mechanic in his shop, and the farmer at 
the plough, have felt and still feel, its withering and 
benumbing influence. Without war or famine, to de- 
stroy or withhold the productions of the earth, indus- 
try languishes and enterprise sickens. May we not, 
in this case, adopt the opinion, "that affliction cometh 
not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out 
of the ground;" but that there is an overruling Hand, 
which guides the destinies of nations, and often brings 
distress upon them, by means which human sagacity 
can neither foresee nor prevent? At all events, it 
would be the part of wisdom seriously to examine, 
whether there are not evils among us, habitually in- 



4 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

dulged, amply sufficient to call down upon us, from 
the hand of a just and sin-avenging God, judgments 
much heavier than we have yet experienced. 

Being assured that all unrighteousness is sin, I shall 
not presume to decide that any particular evil is pecu- 
liarly offensive in the Divine sight. It is unquestion- 
ably our duty to correct every vice, when discovered, 
to which we are addicted. Many of the vices which 
abound in the world, are chargeable on individuals, 
rather than on the community in a collective capa- 
city. Evils, however, which are upheld and main- 
tained by the laws of the land, are justly attributed 
to the people at large. 

If we seriously consider the general character of 
the laws, at present in force in the State of Delaware, 
in regard to a point to be hereafter more fully ex- 
plained, we may justly question whether a people, 
who were duly impressed with the conviction, " that 
righteousness exalteth a nation, — but sin is a reproach 
to any people," would ever have adopted them, or 
would long tolerate their continuance. 

I am aware that the subject in question, is often 
said to be one of delicacy and danger. The danger 
is freely admitted. But it lies in the thing itself, and 
not in the discussion of it. We are sometimes in- 
formed that the subject is an exciting one; and there- 
fore, we may infer, ought not to be touched. People 
of weak intellects or irritable temperaments, are gene- 
rally excited, when their interests or their prejudices 
are assailed. The craftsmen of Diana were excited, 
when the apostle taught the people " that they were 
no gods which w^ere made with hands." And well 
they might be; for they saw if that doctrine was 



i 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 5 

generally admitted, their trade was ruined. And they 
probably thought the apostle had no right to interfere 
with their business, and destroy their means of sup- 
port. The philosophers of Pisa were excited, when 
Gallileo taught, that a great w^eight would descend 
with no greater velocity than a small one, because 
that doctrine assailed their prejudices, and probably 
diminished their credit. The excitement in both 
cases, arose from attachment to error, in preference 
to truth. And probably we shall find, if we carefully 
scrutinize the subject, that excitement generally ori- 
ginates in the same principle. The conduct of Pope 
Julius was, on one occasion, no less judicious than 
singular. He ordered all the charges, which were 
advanced against him and his government, to be laid 
before him. If true, said he, they will serve for cor- 
rection; if false, for diversion. A much higher au- 
thority than Pope Julius, has left us a pointed intima- 
tion on the same subject: "Every one that doeth evil, 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his 
deeds should be reproved." 

The subject of negro slavery, and the rights of the ^"■ 
coloured race, is one which has excited no small at- 
tention of latter time, throughout the civilized world. 
We all know, that strenuous efforts are made in some 
parts of our country, to prevent the discussion of this 
question. But like the Grecian senate, which decreed 
eternal oblivion to the name of the slave who burnt 
the temple of Diana, and recorded the decree, these ^ 
efforts furnish the most efl^ectual means of defeating 
their object. They unavoidably excite the discussion 
which they are intended to prevent. Wherever we 
witness an eflfort to suppress inquiry, we necessarily 

1* 



b AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

conclude there is something in the case which dreads 
exposure, and courts concealment. 

The early settlers in New England, have been 
justly reproached with the violation of their own prin- 
ciples. Having left the home of their fathers to ob- 
tain the privilege of worshipping God in the way 
which corresponded with their apprehension of duty, 
they very soon resorted to rigour, for the purpose of 
enforcing conformity to their own theological opin- 
ions ; thus denying to others the rights which they 
claimed for themselves. And we may rationally in- 
quire, whether some parts of our conduct are not justly 
chargeable with an equal, or greater inconsistency. 

When the government of the mother country, se- 
venty years ago, commenced a series of measures, 
which were judged to be encroachments on our natu- 
ral and chartered rights, the people of this country 
sought a justification of their opposition to the consti- 
tuted authorities — not in precedent and prescription, 
but in the unalienable rights of man. The encroach- 
ments of the strong upon the privileges of the weak, 
had furnished precedents enough to support the British 
parliament in all their invasions. Our fathers had 
mingled with their loyalty a sprinkling of republican- 
ism, which led them to investigate the principles of 
government and the origin of power. They adopted 
and proclaimed in the face of the world, the import- 
ant doctrine, that governments were instituted to se- 
cure the indefeasible rights of man, and that they owe 
their just power to the consent of the governed. In 
the promulgation of these noble principles, no distinc- 
tion was drawn or attempted, between the different 
races of men. How supremely ridiculous would the 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 7 

Declaration of Independence have appeared, if the 
coloured race, or those of them who were in slavery, 
and their descendants forever, had been expressly ex- 
cepted in the general assertion of human rights. And 
we may observe, that the principles avowed in that 
momentous document, are not the obsolete doctrines 
of a former age. They are distinctly recognised in 
the Constitutions of about three-fourths of the States; 
and implied in most of the others. 

In the preamble to the Constitution of Delaware, 
as amended and adopted in 1831, we find the follow- 
ing declarations : 

"Through Divine goodness, all men have, by nature, 
•the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator 
according to the dictates of their consciences ; of en- 
joying and defending hfe and liberty, of acquiring and 
protecting reputation and property, and, in genera], of 
attaining objects suitable to their condition, without 
injury by one to another; and as these rights are es- 
sential to their welfare, for the due exercise thereof, 
power is inherent in them ; and therefore all just au- 
thority, in the institutions of political society, is de- 
rived from the people, and established with their con- 
sent, to advance their happiness." 

We readily perceive that the principles here avowed, 
leave no room for hereditary slavery. For it is per- 
fectly nugatory to pretend that the institution of slavery 
ever was, or ever could be, formed with the consent 
of the governed. A clause of nearly similar import, 
being introduced into the Constitution of Massachu- 
setts, in 1780, the judges of the Supreme judicial 
court decided, upon the first case which came before 
them involving the question of slavery, that under the 



8 AN^ ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

new Constitution, slavery no longer existed in the 
State. In twelve other States of the Union, heredi- 
tary slavery has been excluded or abolished, either by 
constitutional provision or by legislative acts ; and 
probably no person, even moderately conversant with 
the condition of our country, will venture to assert, 
that the prosperity of those States where slavery is 
extinguished, has been impaired by the measure. The 
contrary, indeed, is generally acknowledged, even 
among the advocates of slavery. If my object in the 
present Address, was to argue the question as one of 
poHcy alone, I could easily show, both by facts and 
arguments, that the institution of slavery is one of the 
most impolitic that was ever adopted. But I appre- 
hend the people of Delaware are too much enlight- 
ened, to need either facts or arguments to convince 
them, that a system, so radically unjust, and so dia- 
metrically opposed to the principles on which the re- 
presentatives of the thirteen colonies assumed their 
station among the nations of the world, can never 
contribute to the honour or greatness of those who 
support it. 

Of the fifty-six members who attached their names 
to the Declaration of Independence, three were repre- 
sentatives of the State of Delaware. Hence it ap- 
pears, that the people of this commonwealth, if they 
aim at consistency of character, ought either to dis- 
avow the act of their representatives, or to support 
its principles. The disavowal is now out of the ques- 
tion, but it is not too late to acknowledge the sound- 
ness of the doctrine. From the decline of the number 
of slaves in the State, during the last fifty years, it 
appears possible that slavery may in time expire with- 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. U 

out legislative action. Yet it is devoutly to be wished, 
that the inhabitants of Delaware may prove them- 
selves now, in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
as enlightened and humane as the Irish clergy were 
towards the close of the twelfth ;* and that they may 
expunge from their statute books, while there are sub- 
jects on whom their benevolence can act, this relic 
of a barbarous age. 

It has been frequently urged, in the slaveholding 
States, where the slaves bear a large proportion to 
the free, that the abolition of slavery there would en- 
danger the safety or tranquillity of the State. This 
argument, even in theory, is destitute of plausibility; 
and its fallacy is. sufficiently proved by the experience 
of the British West Indies. In some of those islands, 
the slaves were to the whites, in the ratio of fifteen to 
one ; yet in all of them emancipation was efiected 
without insurrection or tumult. But were the argu- 
ment a good one, it has evidently no application to 
the State of Delaware. According to the census of 
1840, the number of slaves was 2,605, being less than 
one-seventh of the coloured population, and about 
one-thirtieth of the whole. 

Nearly seventy years ago, the sagacity of Adam 
Smith estabfished as a theory, what experience has 
since amply proved as a fact, that as a general rule, 
the labour of slaves is dearer than the labour of free- 



* It is perhaps not generally known, that a trade in slaves 
was once carried on between Bristol and Ireland, not very unlike 
to that which is now prosecuted between the District of Colum- 
bia and the South and West ; and that a council of the Irish 
clergy, convened at Armagh, in the year 1171, decreed that this 
trade should be immediately abolished, and the slaves who had 
been thus imported, set free. — Vide Henry's History of England. 



10 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

men. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that the 
inhabitants of this State have not even a pecuniary 
interest in the continuance of slavery. And I appre- 
hend, that if motives of interest were denied their in- 
fluence, there would be no hesitation in regard to the 
extinction of this forced and unnatural condition. 
Whatever arguments may be urged in support of this 
system, the ruling motive is a real or imaginary inte- 
rest in its continuance. The slaves are considered 
as property, and their emancipation is viewed as the 
abandonment of a right. We ought, however, to re- 
flect, that no right can be founded on a wrong ; and 
that no other right of property is so sacred and invio- 
lable, as the right to our own mental and physical 
powers. This is indeed the foundation upon which 
the right of property in anything else is built. The 
emancipation of our slaves would therefore be, not 
the surrender of a right, but the abandonment of a 
wrong. Let our interests and our prejudices be silent, 
and there will be no difference of opinion among us 
on this point. 

It is a remarkable circumstance, that the people of 
these United States, were the first to proclaim, in a 
solemn appeal to the world, that all men were created 
free ; that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
are inalienable gifts of the Creator; and that the ju^t 
powers of governments are derived from the consent 
of the governed; and yet we appear likely to be insu- 
lated from the civilized world, in their practical denial. 
Having long felt a deep interest in the character of 
this State, I can hardly breathe for its inhabitants a 
more ardent wish, than that they may duly appreci- 
ate their standing and influence, in the great confede- 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 11 

ration to which they belong — and above all, their duty 
as men and Christians ; and that by extending to 
others, the same rights which they claim for them- 
selves, they may prove their plaudits of liberty and 
the benefits of self-government, to be founded on a 
just estimate of their value. 

Although the number of slaves now held in the 
State is not great, yet to each of the two thousand 
six hundred thus held, the injustice is intrinsically the 
same as if the number was ten times as great ; and 
while the laws continue as they are, Delaw^are must 
bear the character — may I not say — must bear the 
odium of a slave-holding State. While the laws sup- 
port a system which is radically unjust, and which 
owes its existence to a traffic, now denounced as pi- 
ratical, the inquiry is comparatively of little import- 
ance, whether the victims of that injustice are many 
or few. In the present case, indeed, the fact that the 
slaves are not numerous, furnishes an argument for 
the extinction, rather than the continuance of slavery ; 
for it proves, that no extensive and important interests 
are concerned in supporting it ; while it leaves in full 
force, all the objections to slavery which are founded 
on religious and moral considerations. 

The system of slavery being essentially a system 
of warfare, there can be very little cordiality between 
the masters and the slaves. I freely admit there are 
examples of mutual attachment between these oppo- 
site classes ; but these are the exceptions, not the rule. 
And in this as in other cases, the antipathy is gene- 
rally stronger on the side of the injurer, than the 
injured. The man who suffers an injury, may, if he 
possesses a Christian spirit, forgive it; but the man 



12 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

who willingly injures another, can hardly fail to hate 
the sufferer. The receipt of an injury may call into 
action the milder virtues ; but the commission of one, 
naturally produces hardness of heart. We see this 
most unhappily illustrated, among all slave-holding 
communities. No stronger evidence of the obdurating 
tendencies of slave-holding need be asked, than the 
general character of the penal laws in our Southern 
States. Among the ancient Romans, the horrible 
punishment of the cross was inflicted chiefly, if not 
exclusively on slaves. The sufferer was first lace- 
rated with rods, and then nailed to a cross, where 
he sometimes hung for days, before he expired. 
Among all nations where slavery prevails, the slave 
is regarded as an object of contempt and aversion. 
The word villain, which is now a term of superlative 
reproach, designated the slave of the middle ages. 

The slavery of our time and country, is marked 
with one unhappy peculiarity. The slaves are of 
African descent ; and all the coloured inhabitants of 
the country are the descendants of slaves. By a na- 
tural, though unjust association, the contempt and 
aversion usually attached to the slave, are transferred 
to the race. Though many of them have a strong 
tincture of the Caucasian variety, yet when any por- 
tion of the African complexion is visible, the degra- 
dation of slavery is still supposed to belong to their 
character. Now, whatever reason, moral or political, 
may exist, why we should desire to prevent the amal- 
gamation of the races, there are none, which a Chris- 
tian can acknowledge, why either class should be 
treated with injustice by the other. Probably very 
few persons of common understanding, will gravely 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 13 

assert, that the natural rights of nien are to be esti- 
mated by the colour of the skin, or the condition of 
their ancestors. Yet when we soberly examine the 
laws of this commonwealth — not only those which 
sanction the continuance of negro slavery, but those 
which relate to the coloured race who are nominally 
free, we must be convinced, that distinctions are made 
in the legal condition of the races, which cannot be 
defended upon sound Christian principles. We can- 
not fail to perceive that restrictions are laid on the 
free coloured inhabitants of the State, which we 
should deem unjust and oppressive, if applied to our- 
selves. 

To the character of the laws relative to the people 
of colour, I am desirous of drawing your particular 
attention. Let us coolly consider, whether the gene- 
ral legislation in regard to those people, can be ex- 
plained in any other way than by referring it to the 
contempt and aversion above mentioned. And per- 
haps it will not be improper to inquire, whether there 
is any more effectual method of rendering them ene- 
mies to the country, than by treating them as such. 

As the coloured race compose nearly one-fourth of 
the population of the State, it would appear that pohcy, 
as well as justice and humanity, requires that the laws 
in relation to them, should be purged of every ingre- 
dient which can weaken their attachment to the go- 
vernment. 

Of the laws which maintain the system of slavery, 
little more will be said ; for I conceive they ought not 
to he modified, but totally repealed. And whenever 
the statute books of the commonwealth shall be ad- 
justed to the principles announced in the preamble al- 

2 



14 APf ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

ready cited from the Constitution, the word slave 
must disappear, or stand connected with a negative. 
Of the laws appUcable to the free coloured race, a 
few will be cited, to afford an opportunity to reflect 
on the propriety and necessity of correcting them. 

By a law of 1787, no slave set free by the laws of 
Delaware, or the issue of such slave, is allowed to 
give evidence against a white person. This law 
would appear to exclude the testimony of coloured 
persons altogether, when that testimony would ope- 
rate against a white person. Nothing appears to 
prevent it from being received against a person of 
colour, or in favour of a white person. Is not such 
a law a virtual declaration, that negroes and mulattoes 
are to be deemed enemies to the whites ? 

By an Act of 1799, free negroes and free mulattoes 
are permitted to give testimony in criminal prosecu- 
tions, when white witnesses cannot be produced. Yet 
no free negro or mulatto, is permitted to give testimony 
against a white man, when the object is to prove him 
the father of an illegitimate child. Did the legislature 
intend to discourage amalgamation, by securing impu- 
nity to the licentious white man ? Or did they only 
design to prevent its legal exposure ? 

An Act of 1810 provides, that slaves whose free- 
dom is legally secured, to take effect after a specified 
time of servitude, shall be deemed slaves until the ex- 
piration of that time; and the offspring of female 
slaves so held, born during their period of servitude, 
shall be deemed slaves— the males till twenty-five, and 
the females till twenty-one years, and no longer. To 
this a provision is added, which no doubt was intended 
to prevent children of this description from being held 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 15 

as slaves, beyond the period prescribed. But why 
are those children allowed to remain in servitude 
three or four years longer than white ones? And 
why, during servitude, are they subjected to all the 
disabilities of slavery? 

An Act of 1811, to prevent the emigration of free 
negroes or mulattoes into the State, provides that no 
free negro or mulatto, not then residing in the State, 
should thereafter come into it to reside. In case any 
person of that description shall come in. Justices of 
the peace are required to command them to leave it ; 
and in case such negro or mulatto does not leave the 
State within ten days after being warned so to do, he 
is liable to a fine of ten dollars, for each week he re- 
mains beyond the ten days. In case this fine, together 
with the costs of prosecution, shall not be paid, he is 
to be sold to any inhabitant of the State, for such term 
as will satisfy the fine and incidental charges. Upon 
the expiration of this servitude, he is to be deemed a 
non-resident, subject to the repetition of a similar pro- 
secution. A free negro or mulatto, — except a seaman 
or w^agoner, in the service of a citizen of Delaware — 
now residing in the State, who shall leave it during 
six months, shall, in case of return into it, be consi- 
dered a non-resident. 

A person hiring or harbouring a free negro or mu- 
latto, after being legally notified that he is a non-resi- 
dent of the State, is subject to a fine of five dollars, 
for each day the negro or mulatto is employed. 

Courts of Quarter Sessions are required to give 
this Act in charge to grand juries, at every court. 

An exception is made in favour of persons who had 
once resided in the State, but were then absent, in 



16 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

case they should bring a certificate of good conduct, 
from one or nnore Justices of the peace where they 
had resided ; and in case such certificate is approved 
and endorsed by two Justices of the county, in which 
such negro or mulatto purposes to reside, and recorded 
in the Register's office, within one month after his re- 
turn to the State. Negroes and mulattoes unlawfully 
taken out of the State, may return without penalty. 

If such restrictions were applied to any other class, 
we should probably be unanimous in reprobation of 
the law. According to this law, a man who has the 
misfortune to be a negro or mulatto, though he may 
hold real property in Delaware, and be a native of 
the State, if he marries a woman of his own colour, 
from an adjoining State, cannot take her to reside 
with him, without exposing her to the danger of being 
sold into servitude, or himself to the payment of a 
ruinous fine. If a coloured man should be engaged 
for a year with an inhabitant of another State, he 
loses the privilege of again residing in Delaware, un- 
less he can obtain a certificate of good conduct, signed 
by one, and approved and endorsed by two other Jus- 
tices of the peace; and such certificate may be 
granted or withheld at pleasure. Numerous cases 
are easily imagined, in which coloured people may 
suffer very vexatious oppression under the operation 
of this law; not for any crimes, real or imaginary, — 
but because they are not white. Does it become a 
Christian community to maintain such a law ? 

By an Act of 1826, a suspicious coloured person, 
who may be found travelling through the State, with- 
out a pass signed by a Justice of the peace, or other 
officer of the place from which he came, renewed by 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 17 

a Justice of the places through which he has passed ; 
or who cannot give a satisfactory account of himself, 
may be committed to prison as a fugitive slave, and 
dealt with according to the law of 1816. This Act 
is to be given in charge to grand juries, at their seve- 
ral sessions. The Act of 1816, to which the above 
reference is made, provides that a person apprehended 
as a fugitive slave, must be taken before a Justice of 
the peace — who, if he thinks proper, may commit 
such supposed fugitive to prison. The Sheriff is then 
required to advertise the reputed fugitive for six 
wrecks; and if at the end of that time, the owner 
does not come and take him away, the Sheriff is di- 
rected to discharge him, without the payment of any 
costs. Fugitives so committed, are not to be given 
up to a claimant, without the authority of a Justice 
of the peace, nor during the night, under a penalty of 
five hundred dollars. 

These laws, I freely admit, are not so severe on the 
coloured race, as those which exist a little farther 
south ; yet, if we could suppose ourselves placed in 
their stead, we should consider the protection afforded 
a very inadequate one. It is not easy to define exact- 
ly, what is meant by a suspicious person. Any col- 
oured person who is poor, ignorant and friendless, 
may be suspected. A person of that description, if 
he ventures to travel where he is not known, however 
peaceably he may conduct, may be suspected of pre- 
ferring freedom to slavery, and may be unable to give 
a satisfactory account of himself, especially if those 
who examine him should not wish to be satisfied. 
Such an one, though obnoxious to no charge, may be 
committed to prison on mere suspicion ; there to lie 
2* 



18 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OP 

six weeks, while the advertisements of the sheriff are 
circulating through the Union. If within that time 
no person shall appear, whom this supposed fugitive 
has been heretofore compelled to serve without wages; 
and if nobody shall choose to establish a claim, by 
bribing or perjury, which a Justice of the peace may 
think sufficient, — the prisoner, having passed his six 
weeks in jail, is to be discharged without paying his 
captors for arresting, or the Sheriff for detaining him. 
Redress for false imprisonment, or remuneration for 
loss of time, seems not to have been thought of. The 
office allotted to the Sheriff is certainly not a very 
honourable one. And we observe, that a single Justice 
of the peace is authorized to give up such a suspected 
fugitive to any claimant, whose demand he may con- 
sider sufficient. In other words, — he may decide with- 
out appeal, the question of the freedom or slavery of a 
man. And yet, in other cases, the jurisdiction of such 
office is limited to claims of fifty dollars ; and his 
judgment is not absolute, if the sum in controversy 
exceeds five dollars and thirty-three cents. Do the 
people of Delaware suppose that the freedom of a 
coloured person is worthy of no stronger guard, than 
claims to property of the value of six dollars ? 

An act of 1832, prohibits free negroes and mulat- 
toes, from owning or possessing any gun, pistol or 
warlike instrunient, whatever, — under a penahy of 
five dollars ; but with the proviso, that any Justice of 
the peace, upon a certificate from five or more re- 
spectable and judicious citizens, that a negro or mu- 
latto is a person of fair character, may grant a permit 
to such free negro or mulatto, to have and use a gun 
or fowling piece. But this permit must be annually 
renewed. 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 19 

To this provision there would, probably, be no very 
serious objection, in case the white people were willing 
to come under similar limitations. 

The same law prohibits meetings of free blacks, 
after ten o'clock P. M., under a penalty often dollars; 
unless under the direction of three respectable white 
men, who shall be present during said meeting, after 
that hour. In case of inability to pay the fine, every 
such negro to be sold to the highest bidder, for any 
term not exceeding three years. 

Non-resident black persons are prohibited, under a 
penalty of fifty dollars, from preaching or holding 
meetings for religious worship, without the license of 
a Judge or Justice of the peace on recommendation 
of five respectable citizens. 

Could such provisions as these be justified in this 
age and in this country, if the objects of them were 
white ? 

An act of 1827, prohibits the exportation of slaves, 
under a penalty of 8500. Yet authority is given to 
persons removing with their families to reside in any 
other State, to take their slaves with them. Now, 
does not this provision open a door for considerable 
exportation? If a man removing with his family 
beyond the limits of the State, may take his slaves 
with him, he may do so if he has no family except 
his slaves. A man but loosely connected with any 
fixed place of residence, may frequently remove into 
and out of the State ; taking care, while in it, to fur- 
nish himself with a competent number of domestics, 
whom he may not need after removing to reside in 
some other State or Territory. Whether this expe- 
dient is actually adopted to evade the law, is a question 



20 AN ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF 

which I shall not undertake to decide ; but I think I 
may safely assert, that as long as men and women 
continue to be deemed merchantable articles in the 
State, expedients will be found to evade any law 
which the legislature can enact, prohibiting their ex- 
portation ; in case the price of slaves in other States 
furnishes a sufficient inducement. 

Twenty-three years have passed away since the 
African slave-trade w'as declared piracy by the laws 
of the Union; and more than sixteen, since the ex- 
portation of slaves was prohibited by the laws of 
Delaware; yet, how Httle do we hear of the arrest or 
execution of pirates under the former, or the collection 
of fines for the violation of the latter. That Ameri- 
can citizens participate largely in the guilty traffic, is 
too clearly established to admit of a doubt ; and from 
the continued diminution of the slaves in the State of 
Delaware, with but a very moderate increase of the 
free coloured population,* there is reason to fear that 
the internal traffic in slaves so extensively prosecuted 
in the States a little farther south, derives some of its 
victims from the State of Delaware. 

* That the decline of the slave population is not wholly pro- 
duced by emancipation, may be fairly inferred from the following 
statistical facts. From 1820 to 1830, the decline in the slave 
population in Kent county, was 477 ; while the increase of the 
free coloured race was only 130 ; being 347 less than the de- 
crease of the slaves. From 1830 to 1840, the decrease of the 
slaves in the same county, was 166 ; — increase of the free col- 
oured 164. In Sussex, the great slave county of the State, the 
slaves were diminished during the same period, 281 ; while the 
free coloured race were also reduced 154. These facts suggest 
a suspicion, that the same depleting process is going on clandes- 
tinely in the southern counties of Delaware, which is prosecuted 
without disguise in Maryland and Virginia ; in the latter of 
which, the slave population was reduced between 1830 and 
1840, upwards of twenty thousand. 



THE STATE OF DELAWARE. 21 

Now, fellow citizens, as my object is not agitation, 
but sober reflection, desiring your present and future 
happiness, I seriously solicit for this subject the cool 
and candid examination which its importance de- 
mands. Every man exercises an influence for evil 
or good, within a circle of greater or less extent; and 
happy will it be for those who, in the evening of life, 
can review the labours of their day with the pleasing 
conviction, that their influence has been employed to 
promote the virtue and happiness of their fellow-men. 
If upon due consideration it should appear, as I think 
it must, that the laws of the State, in relation to the 
coloured race, are not in accordance with the great 
principles on which our government is professedly 
founded, — nor with the doctrines of the Christian re- 
ligion, which teach us to do to others as we would 
wish others should do to us, then it is obvious, that 
the civil and religious duty of the citizens of Dela- 
ware, requires the exercise of such influence as they 
respectively possess, to promote and secure a meho- 
ration of those laws. 

PHILANTHROPOS. 



APPENDIX 



—*»•••*«— 



My design in the foregoing address was to call the 
attention of my readers to the moral questions con- 
nected with slavery, and the treatment of the coloured 
race ; yet it will probably be interesting to some of 
them, to view the operation of slavery on some of the 
great interests of society. 

There are but few objects of greater importance in 
any country, and more especially in republican ones, 
than the proper education of youth. I am not about 
to expatiate upon the effects which slavery is known 
to produce on the habits of those who from infancy 
are accustomed to inhale its atmosphere. These ef- 
fects were depicted many years ago, in strong colours, 
by a writer of well known celebrity, who was him- 
self a slave-holder, and who had abundant opportunity 
to observe the effects which he so vividly portrayed. 
My purpose is, to exhibit a few statistical facts, which 
clearly prove, that the first elements of instruction 
are less generally diffused among a slave-holding than 
a free population. To bring this matter near home, 
I shall compare the state of knowledge, as represented 
by the census of 1840, in the different counties of 
Delaware, and in the adjoining counties where slaves 
are, and where they are not held. The first column 
contains the number of white persons over 20 years 
of age ; — the second, the number of those who cannot 
read and write ; — the third, the relation which the un- 
instructed bear to the whole ; — and the fourth, the 
number of slaves to one hundred white persons. 







APPENDIX. 






'23 










No. of slaves 


Whites 


3 over 20. 


No. of uneducated. Ratio. 


to 100' 


whites. 


New Castle, 


12845 


529 


Ito 24i 




2 


Kent, Del. 


7457 


1913 


1 " 4 nearly 


3 


Sussex, 


8546 


2380 


1 " 3i 




84 


Chester, Pa. 


26183 


751 


1 " 35 ] 


nearly 





Delaware, " 


9006 


51 


1 " 176 







Cumberrd,N.J. 


6226 


162 


1 " 38 







Cape May, " 


2347 


10 


1 " 235 







Salem, « 


6747 


327 


1 " 21 







Cecil, Maryland, 


6483 


249 


1 " 26 




10 


Kent, " 


2636 


199 


1 " 13 




49 


Queen Ann, " 


2821 


371 


1 " 8 




64 


Talbot, 


3080 


443 


1 " 7 




61 


Dorchester, " 


4938 


1045 


1 " 5 




41 


Somerset, " 


5234 


561 


1 « 9 




47 


Worcester, " 


5223 


565 


1 " 9 




30 



Here we may observe, that in all those counties 
where no slaves are held, with the exception of Salem, 
the number of white persons over twenty years of age 
who cannot read and wlite, bears a smaller ratio to the 
number who can, than in any county where slaves are 
held ; and this exception applies only to New Castle 
and where but few slaves appear. 

That this is not an accidental coincidence of slavery 
and ignorance, is easily shown, by a comparison of 
the numbers in the slave-holding and non-slave-holding 
States. If we compare New York, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania, with Delaware, Maryland and Virgi- 
nia; or Ohio with Kentucky, or Massachusetts with 
South Carolina, we still find the same indications of 
the effect of slavery upon the education of the free. 











No. of slaves 


Whites over 20. 


No- of uneducated. 


, Ratio. 


to 100 whites. 


New York, 


1155522 


44452 


Ito 26 


8 


New Jersey, 


166964 


6385 


1 " 26 


i 


Pennsylvania, 


765917 


33940 


1 " 22 





Delaware, 


28848 


4822 


1 " 6 


^ 


Maryland, 


154442 


11817 


1 « 13 


28^' 


Virginia, 


329954 


58787 


1 " 6 


60 


Ohio, 


638938 


35394 


1 « 18 





Kentucky, 


242974 


40018 


1 « 6 


31 


Massachusetts, 


403761 


4448 


1 " 91 





S. Carolina, 


111663 


20615 


1 " 5^ 


126 



24 APPENDIX. 

This table requires no comment ; still the darkest 
part of the picture is not yet exhibited. The single 
State of South Carolina contains more white persons, 
over twenty years of age, who cannot read and write, 
than the six New England States. Although the 
white population of these States amounts to 2.212.165 
and of South Carolina to 259.084. The States north 
of Mason and Dixon's line, contain a white popula- 
tion of 6.618.758, of whom 97.816 over 20 years, 
cannot read and write. But Virginia and North 
Carolina, with a white population of 1.225.838, con- 
tain 115.396 of similar description. The nuuiber of 
whites over 20 years of age who cannot read and 
write, in the State of Tennessee, exceeds by more 
than a thousand, the number of like character in New 
York and the six eastern States ; and yet the white 
population of Massachusetts alone, is greater by 
eighty-eight thousand than that of Tennessee. 

If we inquire into the effect of slavery on the in- 
crease of the white inhabitants, its deleterious charac- 
ter is still apparent. Indeed, the growth of the free 
States, in wealth and population, is a subject of alarm 
with the supporters of slavery. Of the adjoining 
States, Kentucky and Ohio, there appears nothing but 
the pressure of slavery, to retard the advance of the 
former with the same rapidity as the latter, — yet mark 
their relative progress. In 1810, the white inhabitants 
of Kentucky numbered 324.237, — while those of Ohio 
amounted to 223.361. In 1840, we find in Kentucky 
590.253 whites,— and in Ohio, 1.502.122. Thus, in 
those thirty years, the white population of Kentucky 
increased 82 on the 100 ; and of Ohio, 556 on the 
100. 



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